weilan said:

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Lord_Immortal said:

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weilan said:

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phoenix4ever said:

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BTB said:

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not to mention the fact that it's very easy for forget where the town hall is on towns you don't play very often.

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You need to play those towns more.

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Agreed, not knowing the buildings is not an excuse. xD

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Uhh... I think he must be new to Heroes III.

As for Hourglass' proposals, I think some new spells might be nice.

On the same style of Ignite, each of the 4 schools may get spells that temporarily boost/nerf 4 primary skills during battle:

Air Magic: 1 spell that boosts Knowledge, 1 spell that reduces Defense
Earth Magic: 1 spell that boosts Defense, 1 spell that reduces Knowledge
Fire Magic: 1 spell that boosts Attack, 1 spell that reduces Spell Power
Water Magic: 1 spell that boosts Spellpower, 1 spell that reduces Attack

Also, since the HotA team wants to restore cut features of Heroes III, in the Alpha/Beta Light and Dark Magic schools are present. Some of the original spells could be moved in the new schools plus new spells can be added for schools:
Light Magic: Bless, Cure, Light Bolt, Fortune, Mirth, Magic Mirror, Prayer, Resurrection, Hour of Power, Divine Intervention
Dark Magic: Curse, Toxic Cloud, Vampiric Weapon, Animate Dead, Death Ripple, Sorrow, Control Undead, Misfortune, Armageddon, Sacrifice,

Magic Arrow divided into 4 different spells for 4 elemental schools + light bolt for Light Magic.

Water Magic gets the two spells mentioned above + Lloyd's Beacon(map spell works like M&M)
Fire Magic gets no new spells except the ones mentioned above BUT its current spells made slightly stronger.
Earth Magic gets: "Poison Weapon" - makes the unit attack poisoned like Wyvern Monarch's as well as "Petrify" which petrifies units like medusa.
Air Magic gets "Empower Mind" that gives the selected unit the attack of Psychic/Magic Elementals + No enemy retaliation.

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If you hover the buildings, it says what they are.

And definitely some new spells will be nice to have and some old ones that are practically useless to be given some usefulness. There is no point in having 30 spells (or whatever) if only 5 of them are useful.

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FirePaladin said:

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They all have a use, so I tend to disagree. Protection from Fire, Sorrow, Cure, Dispel, Counterstrike and many more. They are all useful in different situations. Changing and/or removing them definitely is not a very good idea.

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Hourglass said:

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FirePaladin said:

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They all have a use, so I tend to disagree. Protection from Fire, Sorrow, Cure, Dispel, Counterstrike and many more. They are all useful in different situations. Changing and/or removing them definitely is not a very good idea.

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Well, changing has already happened. For example, the Armageddon has been nerfed, and protection spells buffed in Hota.

Sorrow, Cure, Dispel and Counterstrike all have some uses, but then we've spells like protection from X, Magic Mirror, Slayer and Remove obstacle, (+ Disguise in solo play) that practically never see any kind of play. Why have them, if their existance only downgrades the Homm3 experience? I mean, they have had over 20 years to proof themselves, but they have simply failed in that?
I agree that protection from fire is the best of their bunch, but it doesn't have to have the same accessability like it has now.

That's why I suggest that at least some of these should be restricted from the Mage guilds (possibly even from shrines), and players would only manage to get them from other sources. Therefore we would have more room for any new spells, because I'm somewhat against of adding multiple new spells, that would kinda mess up the Mage guild % chances.

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phoenix4ever said:

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The only spell I would remove is Disguise, it manages to be both broken and useless at the same time.
Land Mine is also very close to being useless, even though I have made it much cheaper and much more powerful, I never feel like casting it anyway.
Slayer and Magic Mirror should be mass spells, I did that and it works well.
Hypnotize is also really bad, it's fun making enemy's Enchanters cast mass spells on you though.

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phoenix4ever said:

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The only spell I would remove is Disguise, it manages to be both broken and useless at the same time.
Land Mine is also very close to being useless, even though I have made it much cheaper and much more powerful, I never feel like casting it anyway.
Slayer and Magic Mirror should be mass spells, I did that and it works well.
Hypnotize is also really bad, it's fun making enemy's Enchanters cast mass spells on you though.

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Hourglass said:

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I think buffing land mine is a step toward right direction, but I think the main problem with the spell is that by the time you get it, it's inconsistant + you have way better options for casting at that point.

For the cases like this, I suggest that they would change the Spell scrolls having individual values instead of them being tied stricly to their level. I mean just like they did with Fly, DD and TP. For example, it's a bit strange that something like Blind scroll and Remove obstacle scroll have the same values. This way, something like Land mine would perhaps pop up more often, and thus see more play than it does now.

Slayer should also be a mass spell, and the scaling should be changed to either add Attack or do more % dmg. The current scaling makes no sense to me.

However, to me knowledge you're only playing against AI, so what do you mean by it turning it into a mass spell somehow solved the issue?

Hypnotize is certainly bad, they were overly cautious when making it back in the day. Simply buffing it should change the situation, thou.

I also suggest making the Frost Nova + Fireball and Inferno to scale bit better with the spell power, it would nice to consider them a bit more seriosly sometimes.

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phoenix4ever said:

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What does me playing against AI having to do with making Slayer a mass spell?

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Lord_Immortal said:

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So given the comments in the "Best town in HotA" especially about Witch and Wizard Class I decided to compile new suggestion about the hero classes & re-arranging of skills in such a way that, more or less, each her class is oriented in 1-2 skills.

Learning + Wisdom + Scholar combined in one skill called "Scholar"

Interference + Eagle Eye combined in one skill called "Witchcraft".

Intelligence + Mysticism combined in one skill called "Meditation".

Logistics + Pathfinding combined in one skill called "Pathfinding".

Artillery + Ballistics combined in one skill called "Engineering"

Some interesting way to incorporate Alchemy as a skill in Heroes either for the production of resources either to implement potions.

Knight: Offence, Armourer,
Cleric: Light Magic, First Aid
Ranger: Archery, Pathfinding
Druid: Earth Magic, Air Magic,
Alchemist: Estates/Alchemy,
Wizard: Scholar, Air Magic
Death Knight: Necromancy, Armourer
Necromancer: Necromancy, Dark Magic
Demoniac: Offence, Witchcraft
Heretic: Sorcery, Fire Magic,
Overlord: Leadership, Offence,
Warlock: Sorcery, Dark Magic
Barbarian: Offence,
Battle Mage: Resistance, Fire Magic
Beastmaster: Armorer, Resistance
Witch: Witchcraft, Water Magic
Planeswalker: Meditation, Resistance
Elementalist: Meditation, Luck
Captain: Navigation, Engineering
Navigator: Navigation, Water Magic
Factory Might: Estates, Engineering
Factory Magic: Fire Magic, Earth Magic,

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Hourglass said:

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phoenix4ever said:

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What does me playing against AI having to do with making Slayer a mass spell?

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Check my initial post, I corrected it. I meant the Magic Mirror, my bad.

I also buffed Hypnotize, Fire Wall, Fireball, Frost Ring and Inferno, they were way too weak before. Armageddon received a huge nerf though.

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FirePaladin said:

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They all have a use, so I tend to disagree. Protection from Fire, Sorrow, Cure, Dispel, Counterstrike and many more. They are all useful in different situations. Changing and/or removing them definitely is not a very good idea.

Edit: Eyes for Haspid and Sea Serpent? They both have eyes on their pictures and in many other places. Or, if you want to remain faithful to the sea snakes from MM, then can you fix their pictures?

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FirePaladin said:

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From what I've read on russian HotA forum, Engineering is the class skill for Factory heroes, which let's you repair mechanisms in battle. Just saying.

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Phoenix4ever said:

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Alternative creatures is an interesting idea, but it needs to be thought through.

Yeah Artillery, Ballistics, First Aid and now Engineering sounds like a little much, unless Engineering is in fact the 3 skills combined? For now First Aid and Ballistics are pretty useless.

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Lord_Immortal said:

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FirePaladin said:

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From what I've read on russian HotA forum, Engineering is the class skill for Factory heroes, which let's you repair mechanisms in battle. Just saying.

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So to properly use war machines you have to have 4 different skills: Artillery, Ballistics, First Aid and now Engineering.

Even though Artillery is not a really useful skill in late game while Ballistics is useful only in sieges?

I think that the HotA team should seriously consider making ALL the skills useful in their own way.

I'm also curious to know if the HotA team is still considering the idea of one alternative creature per town. I just downloaded the Heroes 3 Assistant and I see so many nice neutral creatures that deserve a faction. Including Mummies and Satyrs which have already been showcased and also Fangarms I presume have been concepted as alternative to Sea Witches/Sorceresses.

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Phoenix4ever said:

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For now First Aid and Ballistics are pretty useless.

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FirePaladin said:

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Fangarms would be too OP as town creatures, but I agree with you.

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Lord_Immortal said:

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Phoenix4ever said:

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For now First Aid and Ballistics are pretty useless.

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Artillery(Ballista) maybe, but not Ballistics(Catapult).

As an experienced Heroes 3 player and extremely good tactician whenever playing in siege defense, I can confirm many cases in which an attacking hero with Advanced or Expert Ballistics has won in sieges because of that. I can also confirm many cases, in which I would defend the castles against much stronger armies with success due to the damage dealt by towers and blocking the enemies into the moat. The more towers you have in your game and the less breaches in your wall the better your chances are.

In any case, three different skills to properly handle war machines is too much, so they might just be toned down to 1 or 2. I'd say 1 to improve effectiveness and 1 to improve resistance.
War Machines - would combine the effects of Artillery and Ballistics
Engineering - except for repairing mechanical units, will also enable repairing war machines
Light Magic - would include First Aid tent boost... maybe even a greater boost than 50/75/100... let's say 100/150/200 OR 75/100/100 where the 2nd one works like a mass spell?

Also one final proposal. The Necropolis "Blacksmith" looks like a coffin where blood is sent. And it gives a First Aid tent when Death Knights and Necromancers do NOT have First Aid skill.

So what if, instead, Necropolis had its own replacement of the First Aid Tent that somehow either can resurrects all undead creatures OR only Vampires/Vampire Lords + appropriate skill for that, which would be the starting skill of Death Knights (and they won't start with Necromancy anymore).

I'd suggest for something that not only heals allied units but also raises the nr of Vampires/Vampire Lords only limited somehow by 0/0/1/2 each turn (0/B/A/E) IIF that amount of "living" monsters has been killed during the combat. Only if certain monsters have been killed though, not all. For example, you can make a Vampire out of a human, Elf or Dwarf but not out of an Unicorn, Angel or Hydra. I would like it if it were made to look similar to the Blacksmith. If the issue here is that Vampires/Vampire Lords are too strong they can still be nerfed down (my solution to all the balance issues for introducing new mechanisms apparently ) even though not too much as one would expect such machine to be main target of enemy AI thus "controlling" the number of vampire lords present during the battle. Other possibilities of such skill might be either granting a hp boost 50/75/100 of this machine OR such effect might be added to Dark Magic skill.

I think that 4 out of all the factions should get unique war machines as initially planned. Like Cove has the Cannon, Necropolis would have this Vampire Coffin thing, and then one unique ammo cart and one unique catapult.

Probably the Ammo Cart would give some special effect to ranged attacks while the new catapult would be also able to attack units(parallel to the fact that Cannon can attack walls).

Since the Catapult cannot be bought I'd say it could be unique for Factory Hero Classes. Maybe a Mortar, like it was conceived for the Kronverk in the early development stages, or something inspired from the Mysorean Rockets.

FirePaladin said:

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Fangarms would be too OP as town creatures, but I agree with you.

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Their stats can be lowered though.

But hey, I got this idea:
Me, you and Phoenix are all veteran players of Heroes III (and other Heroes of Might and Magic games as well) and know the mechanisms well.

Why don't we come up with a "suggestion pack" and then find a way to send it to the HotA team. This way all our suggestions would make sense. We divide it into several sections, starting from the easiest to implement (and most coherent such as balance and gameplay issues) and moving towards more complex ones (such as new Towns and Spell Schools).

With what I see, Docent and other members of the HotA team don't really interact with the international English Language community.

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FirePaladin said:

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So, where should I post all my suggestions (mostly fixing visuals and stuff from me, the balancing I leave to everyone else who plays PvP, but that doesn't mean I won't come with balance suggestions)?

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